AMD will take Opteron to the next level on June 1, when it formally unveils its 6-core Istanbul processor. The exciting angle for users of high-powered servers (and also viewed from a data-center consolidation perspective) is that Istanbul in 4-socket servers will deliver 24 physical cores. (And you can add virtualization on top of that.) When you add the AMD launch to Intel news last week about its 8-core Nehalem-EX, I'd say we have a have a processing-power revolution on our hands comparable t

With every dime precious, taking time off from work, much less an actual vacation, might seem to be an unthinkable luxury, but it turns out that small business owners are planning vacations this summer at about the same rate as last year.

A deep debate over outsourcing dogma could be in the works following a statement by Kraft's SVP of shared services that "there is very little truly global scale advantage" in BPO deals and that the best approach is regional best-of-breeds involving regional pairs, such as North America and Asia-Pacific. The interview with AMR's Phil Fersht is a must-read for anyone involved in outsourcing strategy.

The company is offering billions to help customers "mind the gap" until so-called stimulus money begins to flow around the globe. And it expects much of that funding will be used to purchase its very own products and services.

Sprint threw a cold bucket of reality on the pipe dreams of AT&T's Randall Stephenson and Verizon Wireless's Lowell McAdam. It verified that it will be the sole distributor of the Palm Pre "through 2009."

Over the last two years, Intel commissioned a study on how companies were delivering virtualization to end users. It's one of the few indicators of where this confused segment is headed. Several approaches are still on the table, but the fastest growing one is where the virtual machine resides on the end user's PC.

Omniture has created a great vision of how analytics should be the common thread among all Web marketing. But if you're an Omniture customer, are you ready?... I think Web analytics software has evolved more quickly than the ability of most people to use it effectively -- or justify paying for it.

There's been a lot of coverage exploring questions about the functionality of Bing, Microsoft's new search engine. Before the company blows $100 million trying to give consumers the answer, I thought I'd give it two branding ideas.

Most of the information we've seen about the BlackBerry Storm 2 clearly shows that the clicking SurePress screen of the original Storm is gone. Why, then, did Research In Motion's co-CEO Mike Lazaridis make a point of saying, "SurePress is here to stay"?

If the book Burning the Ships by Marshall Phelps and David Kline is any indication, the Microsoft we see today is in the midst of a radical change to the way they do business. Most of the book describes the changes to Microsoft's intellectual property policies that Phelps has championed and implemented during his time at the company; he's

Jan Carlzon, former CEO of Scandanavian Airlines (SAS) and author of the bible on customer satisfaction (Moments of Truth) would be rolling his eyes right about now if he could have heard the telephone conversation I just had with a US Air. I've just learned that despite holding a US Air-issued Dividend Miles card (pictured below) in my hand (the one to which I've been applying my last 15+ years of US Air travel), I am a

I'm not a big fan of David Pogue (this video is one reason, though mainly it's because he has a larger audience than I), but I took notice when he reviewed the latest Kindle alternative. What does it all mean? Ebooks are real, and they'll eventually replace print, but for now I'm ticked there are no good portable PDF readers for smartphones.

AMR Research released its list of the top 25 supply chains in the manufacturing and retail sectors and said a distinguishing characteristic of all 25 is that they place an intensely customer-centric focus on everything from operations to innovation.

This must be executive let-the-cat-out-of-the-bag week. This time it was Verizon's Lowell McAdam who let flap that he expects the company to offer not only the Palm Pre, but also the BlackBerry Storm 2 within the next six months. Bam!

As InformationWeek Government readers were busy firming up their fiscal year 2015 budgets, we asked them to rate more than 30 IT initiatives in terms of importance and current leadership focus. No surprise, among more than 30 options, security is No. 1. After that, things get less predictable.